Guinness golf records

With Lynn Ray attempting to hit the most 300-yard drives in 12 hours to set a world record, a sampling of other Guinness golf world records:

Most holes played in seven days with a cart: 1,850 by Bob Kurtz at Quail Creek Golf Course in Hartselle, Ala., from June 4-11, 2011. Kurtz, 70, averaged 74.55 per round on the par-71 course.

Most holes played in one year: 11,000 by Richard Lewis at the Four Seasons Resort and Club in Irving, Texas, from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2010. Lewis played 611 full rounds of golf, plus an additional two holes, averaging more than 30 holes per day.

Longest golf course in the world: 8,548-yard, par-72 Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Golf Club in Lijiang, China. The longest hole on the course is the 711-yard, par-5 fifth.

Most balls hit in a 12-hour period: 7,721 shots from 100 yards to a specified area, achieved by Irishman Nigel Mangan on Jan. 27, 2010, in Orlando Florida. Mangan had never played an 18-hole round of golf.

Most golf balls held in one hand for 10 seconds: 24, by Guillaume Doyon, a college student in Quebec, on Nov. 30, 2009.

Most lifetime holes in one: 59, by California Norman Manley, who made his first ace in 1964 and aced four holes in 1979.

Longest one-handed golf shot: 282 yards by Sweden’s Christian Sterning on June 18, 2005, at the St. Andrews Bay Golf Resort in Scotland.

Source: Guinness Book of World Records

From yards away, one look at Lynn Ray’s golf bag makes it obvious he is a different breed of golfer.

In a black bag are the black-and-red headcovers of eight drivers. Lost somewhere in this forest of graphite is a wedge and putter. That’s it. Ray insists he has a more standard set that he takes to the golf course, but when 350-yard drives are commonplace in your repertoire, who really needs a bunch of useless extra sticks?

“I don’t really use that many irons,” Ray said with a little smile.

Aptly, he is nicknamed “Capt’n Crush.” Ten years ago Ray’s oldest son, who would die tragically, coaxed his dad to take him to a long drive competition, and Ray got hooked. Ray carries eight drivers -- one for every conceivable launch condition – because he’s now a professional long drive competitor when he’s not designing computer chips for Entropic Communications in Sorrento Valley.

The 48-year-old Ray has four times reached the finals of the Re/Max World Long Drive Championships while taking three Hawaii state championships and the 2010 ALDA California state title. The Canyon Lake resident and father of seven has captured more than 20 championships and is captain of the long drive team for San Diego-based Aldila shafts.

Ray has a new achievement in his sights: getting into the Guinness Book of World Records.

On Jan. 28, at about the time the third round of the PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open is wrapping up on the Torrey Pines South Course, Ray will step onto the 10th tee of the North Course and begin hammering drives. Twelve hours later, at 3:30 in the morning, if his back hasn’t seized up and he can still lift his arms, Ray hopes to have hit 6,000 drives of more than 300 yards to establish a previously unattempted Guinness record. He wants to fire 750 balls over 300 yards in the first hour to also create a single-hour record.

Ray wanted the record attempt to have a charity aspect and chose the San Diego Junior Golf Association as the benefactor. In almost a street performer fashion, the organization will solicit donations on-site while Ray is hitting. Junior Golf also is running a raffle and asking for per-ball pledges on its website (sdjga.org).

With title sponsor support from the Carlsbad Golf Center, the SDJGA hopes to raise between $10,000 and $20,000.

“It was just kind of shoot for the stars, and it stuck,” said Chris Spence, the SDJGA assistant executive director who has done much of the work on making the event happen.

Setting a Guinness record is not an easy process. Ray had to apply to set the mark and was given strict guidelines. A surveyor has to be hired to ensure the yardage of Ray’s driving grid is correct, and there has to be someone to record every ball. The entire 12 hours must be videotaped for Guinness officials to review.

Lights have to be installed around the 10th hole because most of Ray’s effort will come after sunset. Then there is the speed at which Ray has to hit: He will swing, come back to a quick set, and hit again. Ray’s 16-year-old son, Brian, will be the person entrusted with putting new balls on the tee without getting his hand mangled.

“I actually sat and teed up balls for him (as practice). It’s pretty crazy,” Spence said. “There’s plenty of time to get your hand out of the way, but you’re so close to the impact of the ball you can actually feel the wind speed coming off the club head. He’s not swinging at 75 to 80 percent. He’s wailing at it.”

It would seem to be tortuous to swing a golf club for 12 straight hours, but Ray shrugs at the thought. A few weeks ago he practiced by hitting for 12 hours and drove 4,800 balls.

“The last couple of hours were pretty grueling. My arms were cramping up,” Ray said. “But it wasn’t too bad. (Brian) was more sore than I was from sitting on a little bench the whole time. His butt was sore.”

Unless the 6-foot-1, 225-pound Ray faces an unexpected headwind at Torrey, he said he should have no problem hitting every drive more than 300 yards. That’s a chip shot at long drive competitions, at which Ray’s all-time best effort is 460 yards.

How does anybody do that?

“Quicker club head speed,” Ray explained. “A natural ability, I guess. When I played in golf in scrambles I was always winning the long drive hole. I was outdriving everybody when I was playing as a junior golfer.”

It’s a genetic thing, obviously. Five of Ray’s children compete in long driving. Ray’s oldest son, Jonathan, started it. But only months after Ray and Jonathan entered their first competition, Jonathan died at 15 in an off-road crash on his motorcycle.

While swinging his driver, Ray often repeats his son’s name – Jon-a-than – to help him keep his tempo.

“He’s the one who got me into it. It’s one of those things we’d do together,” Ray said solemnly. “It was such a short time, but it’s one of those memories I will always have.”